Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, to channel estimation within wireless communication systems including those having long range and low rate wireless links.
Description of Related Art
Communication systems support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. The systems can range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems, to the Internet, to point-to-point in-home wireless networks and can operate in accordance with one or more communication standards. For example, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11x (where x may be various extensions such as a, b, n, g, etc.), Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), etc., and/or variations thereof.
In some instances, wireless communication is made between a transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) using single-input-single-output (SISO) communication. Another type of wireless communication is single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) in which a single TX processes data into RF signals that are transmitted to a RX that includes two or more antennae and two or more RX paths.
Yet an alternative type of wireless communication is multiple-input-single-output (MISO) in which a TX includes two or more transmission paths that each respectively converts a corresponding portion of baseband signals into RF signals, which are transmitted via corresponding antennae to a RX. Another type of wireless communication is multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) in which a TX and RX each respectively includes multiple paths such that a TX parallel processes data using a spatial and time encoding function to produce two or more streams of data and a RX receives the multiple RF signals via multiple RX paths that recapture the streams of data utilizing a spatial and time decoding function.
Within such wireless communication systems, an accurate characterization of the wireless pathway between devices allows for greater performance. For example, a device that has a more precise information concerning a wireless pathway view which it will transmit a signal to another device can optimize various operational parameters for that transmission. As such, one or both of the devices involved in wireless communication will typically perform characterization of the wireless link between them.